"_At paragraph [270]_: ‘But I am satisfied that the evidence now is inconsistent with the distinction formerly drawn between biological factors, meaning genitals, chromosomes and gonads, and merely "psychological factors", and on this basis distinguishing between cases of inter-sex (incongruities among biological factors) and transsexualism (incongruities between biology and psychology)’.

_At paragraph [272]_: ‘In my view the evidence demonstrates (at least on the balance of probabilities) that the characteristics of transsexuals are as much “biological” as those of people thought of as inter-sex’."

The Vatican's statement on the subject in 2003 is of course dogma for now, but hopefully scientific data from 1996 rather than 1976 will be used to correct it in the fullness of time.

What is not in contention though is that Intersexed people exist, that these people are classified as "Transgender", and so the recent pronouncement regarding Christian Anthropology is directly counter to Catholic doctrine, as stated in the 2003 document from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Homosexuality, Lesbianism, and Bisexuality are irrelevant, except inasmuch as those who are Intersexed - neither fully male nor fully female - require theologically correct Christian guidance as regards moral behaviour. This is particularly important in cases of "serial hermaphroditism" caused by 5 alpha reductase deficiency and other syndromes, where the patient's apparent sex changes over their lifetime. Chromosomes are not definitive guides either - there have been men with 46xx (female) chromosomes who have become fathers, and women with 46xy (male) chromosomes who have borne children. And while most people with 47xxy chromosomes look male, some do not. Again, some have been fathers, others mothers.

I request that you issue a correction to your erroneous statement as soon as possible, in the name of Charity.

Monday, 25 June 2007

You'd think that a woman who has struggled all her life with a terrible congenital condition might be treated with a modicum of compassion. A woman who has worked in the hideously dangerous occupation of bomb disposal might deserve respect, rather than mockery and scorn.

A BURLY Army sergeant is having a £30,000 sex change — paid for by the Ministry of Defence.

Rugby-playing former commando David Penny, 40, has changed his name to Deborah and wears false boobs under his uniform.

Off duty, the Royal Green Jackets bomb disposal unit veteran is allowed to totter around the mess in stilettos, a skirt and tight-fitting tops as he awaits his op.

And we can reveal his comrades are outraged — not so much by Penny's sex swap, but by the fact the ARMY is shelling out for it.

One told the News of the World: "It's nothing short of a scandal that thousands of pounds is being used this way when soldiers are dying in Afghanistan and Iraq because the MoD cannot afford the right kit for them.

"A few of the lads have joked that Penny wouldn't be able to go into battle without his weapon. But when you sit back and think about what's going on, it's much more serious than that."

Sgt Penny stunned colleagues by ‘coming out' as a woman last week at Colchester barracks in Essex. He had sought permission from superiors before doing it.

On Friday we captured the soldier — who has served for 23 years—returning to his home dressed as Deborah.

‘She' is pictured in her Royal Green Jackets uniform with a new bobbed hair-do and wearing ear-rings and a teddy bear keyring.

The soldier — who is said to have been disowned by his shocked RAF veteran father Charles — has to prove he can live like a woman for a year before he undergoes sex swap surgery.

A pal said: "It will be a tough job. He is a strong man with legs like tree trunks and broad shoulders. His voice is still deep and he will need voice coaching."...An MoD spokesman confirmed Sgt Penny was now living a new life as Deborah but said it was a private matter.

A woman who I was in Chonburi at the same time I was paid about 10,000 pounds for her op. She's in the British Army too. Either the MOD is being ripped off, or someone is trying to make Deb's life even more difficult by telling porkies, or the NotW is upholding its slimy tradition of never letting the facts get in the way of a good story by engaging in journalistic research.

Fortunately for Deborah, women like us have the capacity to take this stuff in our stride. If we didn't, we'd be one of those who didn't make it. But yes, it hurts.

It could be worse. I wonder how the authors of the article, Lewis Panther & Jane Atkinson, manage to live with themselves? There are worse things one can be than Transsexual, and being a writer (I won't use the term "journalist") for the NotW is one of them.

Tuesday, 19 June 2007

If you want to know why the US has the greatest impact on the world in terms of culture, politics, and economic clout, just imagine if each state of the Union was a different country. Here's a graphic showing states whose Gross Domestic Product matches that of the corresponding countries.

You can see that on its own, the US would make a pretty good UN in that regard.

Monday, 18 June 2007

If one was to try to modify the dysfunctional UN Human Rights Commission to make it even worse - a difficult task - you could try a number of measures.

First, change the name to the "UN Human Rights Council", and make sure its membership consists of egregious human rights violators. Sudan. Zimbabwe. That kind of regime.

Get rid of this "criticising a country for human rights violations" bit. Except if it's Israel, then make it mandatory.

Make sure reviews are held every two years, better, every four years, and always in conjunction with representatives of the country concerned. Allow plenty of time, say, oh, three hours for each review. That should be enough to deal with 4 years worth of reports. Make sure that the same time is given for China as for the Seychelles. Especially make sure that all countries are reviewed, North Korea and Luxumbourg treated identically.

These Independent monitors have to go. But in the meantime, make sure they can't actually criticise anyone by imposing a "standard of conduct", one that prohibits 'abusive language' or 'politically motivated communications.'

Get rid of all of the standing mandates to closely monitor the very worst violators. Except for Israel of course. That mandate stays as long as Israel exists.

Friday, 15 June 2007

Transgender people have become the new go-to characters on television on such ABC shows as "Ugly Betty " and "All My Children" and the FX show "The Riches." They also have become the topic of more news reports in recent months.

A Florida city manager is fired seemingly for disclosing he will have a sex-change operation. A sports reporter in Los Angeles decides it's time everyone learns who she really is.

A sibling in the famous acting Arquette family has brought the struggles that a transgender person faces to the big screen in the documentary "Alexis Arquette: She's My Brother," which made its debut this year at the Tribeca Film Festival. The documentary follows other indie favorites, such as "Boys Don't Cry" and "Transamerica," to bring lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender stories to the forefront.

Fiction and reality have mixed to bring an increasing presence in the media of transgender people in the past six months. This is all positive for transgender individuals and society, say those who are active in the transgender community.

Mara Keisling, executive director of National Center for Transgender Equality, partially credits the Internet and medical advancements with allowing people to express themselves physically. That outlet, she says, has created a domino effect.

"There's so many trans people out that more and more people do have trans people in their lives, and that's going to cause more trans people in the media," she says . "... When the entertainment media stories happen, they really have a dramatic impact. When they're done sympathetically, they make people feel safe and more willing to come out.

"When they're done maliciously, that has a chilling effect, makes people feel less willing. It's really that simple."

The country saw both sides in recent months when, in February and March, the Largo, Fla., city commission voted to fire Steve Stanton as the city manager after 14 years on the job. Commissioners have said it was Stanton's judgment and not his decision to have a sex change operation to become Susan Ashley Stanton that cost him his job.

When Los Angeles Times sports writer Mike Penner wrote a first-person story in April, formally coming out to readers and co-workers about what his life had been like and what it would turn into by becoming Christine Daniels, the reaction was mostly favorable, says Daniels. Since coming out in the article headlined "Old Mike, New Christine," Daniels has been inundated with supportive emails and phone calls, received a promotion and keeps a blog on the Times website, latimesblogs.latimes.com/womaninprogress/.

"For some reason there's an acceptance or openness right now that wasn't there a year ago," Daniels says.

"One person who's known for doing an amazing job gets fired and another gets embraced," Keisling says. "Both of those stories really strike home because we now all know transgender people."

Regular readers of this blog are just ahead of the pack, that's all.

I blame the Internet. You see, there's so much more information now, we know that we're not alone, we're not even that rare. 26 months ago I knew nothing, or rather, I thought I knew things that were incorrect. Starting in May 2005, I did research, and found a plethora of data indicating that the uniqueness I had always taken pride in when everything else was lost was not so unique at all, quite common really. OK, the IPSR "ideopathic partial sex reversal", that was odd, but really not that important compared with how I felt, who I was. I'm still unsure as to how much of the physical change was within "normal" boundaries, and how much was the result of wishful thinking anyway. I know I'm excellent at self-deception, and it would be comforting to think that it's all one long chain of coincidence.

However, there's the photographic evidence, the eyewitnesses, the peculiar blood test results, the slightly atypical pelvic structure, the atrophy of what was borderline hypogonadism, the 15 year old guarded diagnosis of PAIS, and even my latest "1 in 100" post-surgical complications... something is odd, we just don't know what, and by how much.

I still have so much to learn about being a woman. I'll be getting my first hairdo in a week, but have yet to arrange a manicure or makeover. Having a boy nearly 6, medical problems, and a PhD to do all have conspired to stop me from doing some of the things that every woman is entitled to once in her life, even a middle-aged Geek Girl like me.

And I'm due to travel overseas soon, to do a little work that will pay for some of my unplanned-for medical expenses. On the way back, I'll be stopping in Thailand, though whether for a diagnostic exam and first aid, or a more extended period and surgical reconstruction under a general anaesthetic is not decided yet. Hopefully the latter. Anyway, I have to do some clothes shopping, to present a "professional appearance". With a very few exceptions, my wardrobe is all from second-hand stores, and I really need a good pair of knee boots too. The work I'm doing will pay for that though, and my surgeon gives a lifetime guarantee on his work : even when the subsequent problems are unforeseeable and not the result of his surgery anyway. He rarely has to do any follow-up, he's still the best in the world.

I'm not sure that the client I'm working for knows of my unusual medical history. But no matter, they're hiring me anyway, and not for my looks!

Thursday, 14 June 2007

One of the things I try to do, with this blog, and in various comment threads, is to educate people on my condition. After all, 26 months ago, I knew nothing about it either, or rather, most of what I knew was wrong. People who "changed sex" were all entertainers, certainly not engineers, academics or scientists.

Mention "transsexuality" on any blog or forum, and lots of ugly opinions crawl put of the woodwork, mostly based on ignorance and misinformation. In my experience, most people are basically good. It's because they're good that they have such strong opinions in matters of morality, ethics, and the health of Society. Point them towards the facts, cure their ignorance, and you don't have to worry about changing their attitudes. Their consciences will do the work for you.

Not everyone can be reached that way: but if you respond to insults, abuse and derision in a calm, dignified and forgiving way, for every active participant in the dialogue, there's likely a dozen of readers who will favourably impressed by your civility, and unimpressed by the self-evident unintelligent bigotry. Hey, it worked or Martin Luther King. Until they shot him.

I won't mention the name of the woman concerned - less for search engines to find, and she's already had more than her fair share of prurient publicity. Follow the link for more details.

I do know that had I known I was going to transition, I certainly wouldn't have had as large an Internet footprint as I have. Not that it's that big, but big enough. Big enough so I figured I may as well continue with my blog, and not anonymise my comments in other places. This woman has it far worse, and, being younger, is also rather more sensitive about the issue. Every day, her male "alter ego" is seen on various educational TV stations around the world, and her transition has been fodder for the tabloids. There's even been a most unfunny cartoon about it. Through it all, she's managed to cope with a grace and dignity I can only stand in awe of.

That's the trouble. The more talented and recognised in the field you are, and she is world-renowned in hers, the less chance there is of avoiding unwelcome attention.

Then just as we've made the case that we just want a normal life, part of society rather than being on the lunatic fringe, there's a story like this. With pictures.

Wednesday, 13 June 2007

A University of Washington scientist who could not obtain funding from traditional research agencies to test his idea that light particles act in reverse time has received more than $35,000 from folks nationwide who didn't want to see this admittedly far-fetched idea go unexplored.

"This country puts a lot more money into things that seem to me much crazier than this," said Mitch Rudman, a music industry executive in Las Vegas whose family foundation donated $20,000 to the experiment. "It's outrageous to me that talented scientists have to go looking for a few bucks to do anything slightly outside the box."

What John Cramer is proposing to do is certainly outside the box. It's about quantum retrocausality.

"He's looking into the fundamental qualities of the universe," said Denny Gmur, a scientist who works for a biotechnology firm in Bothell. "I had $2,000 set aside to buy myself a really nice guitar, but I thought, you know, I'd rather support something that's really mind-boggling and cool."...Cramer, a physicist, for decades has been interested in resolving a fundamental paradox of quantum mechanics, the theory that accounts for the behavior of matter and energy at subatomic levels. It's called the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox....As the evidence for this has accumulated, several fairly contorted and unsatisfying efforts have been aimed at solving the puzzle. Cramer has proposed an explanation that doesn't violate the speed of light but does kind of mess with the traditional concept of time.

"It could involve signaling, or communication, in reverse time," he said. Physicists John Wheeler and Richard Feynman years ago promoted this idea of "retrocausality" as worth considering. Cramer's version aimed at using retrocausality to resolve the EPR paradox is dubbed (by him) the "transactional interpretation of quantum mechanics."

Most physicists, such as the celebrated cosmologist Stephen Hawking, still believe time can move only in one direction -- forward. Cramer contends there is no hard and fast reason why.

He has proposed a relatively simple bench-top experiment using lasers, prisms, splitters, fiber-optic cables and other gizmos to first see if he can detect "non-local" signaling between entangled photons. He hopes to get it going in July. If this succeeds, he hopes to get support from "traditional funding sources" to really scale up and test for photons communicating in reverse time.

It may be important to note, at this point, that Cramer is not crazy.

On Sunday, he began his annual stint running particle physics experiments at the Brookhaven National Laboratory's Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. He and others at the national lab use the supercollider to smash together particles, create the hottest matter ever made by humans and study things such as quarks or other subatomic particles.

Cramer, who also writes science fiction books as a hobby, earlier worked at CERN, the world's largest particle physics laboratory, on the border between France and Switzerland. In the 1980s, he was director of the UW's nuclear physics laboratory and today remains a well-respected experimental physicist.

"I'm not crazy," he confirmed. "I don't know if this experiment will work, but I can't see why it won't. People are skeptical about this, but I think we can learn something, even if it fails."

I think he's right. I think the odds are that time's arrow is monodirectional, but it might not be. No matter what the results, the experiment is relatively (relativistically?) cheap and cerainly worth doing.

Cramer said it's possible that the primary goal of his experiment could fail and yet still produce something of value. Some new subtlety about the nature of entanglement could be revealed, he said, even if the photons don't engage in measurable non-local communication. The "disentanglement" itself, he said, could be quite revealing.

"It wouldn't be as nice as a positive result, but it would certainly be interesting and publishable," Cramer said. If there is an interesting negative result or a half-positive result, he said he will buy more precise equipment to see if he can tease out what's happening. Cramer has all the money he needs for this phase, but he hopes to see a second phase. ...HOW TO DONATE

The University of Washington has set up a special account to which individuals or groups can contribute funds for John Cramer's experiment.

Tax-deductible contributions to the project may be made by contacting Jennifer Raines, UW Department of Physics, at jraines@phys.washington.edu, or mailing a check made out to the University of Washington with a notation on the check directing deposit to the account for "Non-Local Quantum Communication Experiment" to:

"Newsweek recently painted a sympathetic portrait of women imprisoned in men's bodies. Such people need a psychiatrist, not a surgeon."

A sympathetic portrait of transsexuals? We can't have that.

Newsweek also avoided the other key debate about this difficult issue: whether or not transgenders have a mental illness or merely an inconsequential desire.

One may as well ponder this other difficult issue: is this psychiatrist just drumming up business exploiting others misery, or just a pig-ignorant bigot?

Sorry, I shouldn't let emotion cloud the issue. The intellectual dishonesty shown by his framing the question this way is breathtaking though, as is the (deliberate?) concealment of the author's religious agenda. What is not concealed is either an astounding ignorance about Intersexuality, or a mind so closed by dogma that it amounts to delusion.

I'm sure he means well, and is as fed up of some of the post-modernist nonsense that passes for intellectual discourse in gender-related psychiatry as I am. I'm sure that his religious convictions on morality are quite similar to my own agnostic ones in most respects, and he sees immorality and perversion masquerading as tolerance of diversity. I see my homophobia as a character flaw to be overcome, he sees his as a positive virtue to be exalted. He's not transphobic : he doesn't know enough to be, scary since he is supposed to be a competent mental health professional. I'm sure he is, in most areas.

That doesn't excuse his mendacity by omission. I got rather fed up with his bovine excrement, and commented in a most snarky fashion. Sometimes you have to let out your inner Bitch.

I'm not alone. The comments from both colleagues and patients were universally damning, only a handful of Religious Nuts commenters supporting him. Even the discredited J. Michael Bailey objected to Dr Bowers' misrepresentation of AGP theory and the conclusions therefrom.

Tuesday, 5 June 2007

ACTU president Sharan Burrow today stood her ground in the escalating furore over her bid to have Australia included on an international list of the world's 25 worst labour regimes.

The International Labor Organisation, the ILO, is (or was) one of the few branches of the UN for which I had some respect. Historically, they have done very good work, improving labour conditions, abolishing indentured slavery, and promoting the rights of those whose income depends on those more wealthy and powerful than themselves.

One of the tools for doing this was the periodic compilation of countries with the worst records of repression of labour. Places like Colombia, where 72 unionists were assassinated last year alone. Places like Eritrea, or Bekina Faso, where imprisonment and torture are risks run by every Labour organiser.

But this time, neither Colombia, nor Eritrea, nor Bekina Faso are on the "worst of the worst" list. It now includes.... the USA, the UK, Japan, and thanks to Sharan Burrow, Australia.

According to Ms Burrow,

"You don't say, 'Deal with him as he's a murderer - I'm just a thief.' International law is not a matter of degree."

Murder or littering, it's all the same. Worse, the proven murderers are let off scot free, it's only political opponents who are taken for trial, accused of mopery and loitering.

The whole idea of the "25 of the Worst" is to differentiate between the sociopathic and the mildly imperfect, between the truly Evil and the less than absolutely spotless. This has now been prostituted, like much of the rest of the UN's organs, into petty political posturing.

Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) chief executive Peter Hendy today accused Ms Burrow of running a political campaign overseas, which he said would be detrimental to Australia and Australian business.

"It's an extreme campaign that she is running for her political agenda that she has got back here in Australia and we don't think she should be doing it," Mr Hendy told reporters.

"She has got a group of foreign legal academics and labour lawyers to condemn Australia for its industrial relations policies.

Mr Hendy said Australia had one of the best labour laws in the world.

"We have some of the best safety nets in the country for workers and to lump us in, with Sharan Barrow's lobbying, the 25 worst industrial relations countries in the world is a disgrace on her part and the ACTU.

"Obviously we are not worse than these countries, and the fact is it is a disgrace that the ACTU is pushing a partisan political campaign offshore," he said.

Ms Burrow - who holds an influential post as president of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, as well as being the public face of the ACTU - confirmed last night that she had used her influence to put Australia in line for an official ILO reprimand...."I don't deny using my influence, but I didn't have to, because the workers' group on the ILO know that Australia's workplace laws are among the worst in the world," Ms Burrow told The Australian....Ms Burrow said that the US, Britain and Japan were also included on the list of 25 nations facing reprimand by an ILO expert committee of jurors.However, she confirmed that the alleged breaches involving these countries were mainly long-standing or past, or not in the most serious category.

As you may have gathered, there's an election coming up. But worse than any temporary effect on Australia, it means that one of the last worthwhile functional parts of the UN has been subverted, perverted and wholly discredited. If Israel isn't on the list now, I'm sure it soon will be, the list pre-printed with Israel at the top. That's been the pattern every other time.

"We think in terms of 'male' and 'female', but gender doesn't stop there. Up to a whopping 2 per cent of people have some form of intersexual features, from mixed chromosomes to ambiguous genitalia. Some people don't even know they're intersexual. David Salt asks why society and science struggle to understand the spectrum between the sexes."

Part of that article is an interview with yours truly.

There once was a boy called Bruce. As a baby he lost his penis in an accident and was surgically transformed into a girl called Brenda.

Then there’s Kylie; she was told that she was born with deformed ovaries that had been surgically removed at age 4. As a young woman she discovered that she was actually born with testes and male chromosomes though she has only ever considered herself female.

Tony was also born as a genetic male but because of his atypical genitalia the doctors decided he would be better off assigned as a female. By the time he turned seven, his phallus had started to grow. Doctors removed his testes to prevent him from masculinising any further but the truth was he had always felt like a man, not a women. When he turned 30 he chose to live his life as a man.

Zoe was born a male but always felt like a female. She did her best to accept her male form but found the effort to maintain the charade became increasingly difficult and stressful over the years. Then, aged 48, she spontaneously began making the transition into a female (and the relief was enormous).

But if you want to read the rest, you'll have to buy a copy : it's not in their online section.

Friday, 1 June 2007

We now have similar temperature graphs for Mars, Neptune, and the Earth. All correlate with Solar Output.

There are two ways of interpreting this:1. That Global Warming is all the fault of the Sun, and that Man's impact is immeasureably small in comparison - so we should do nothing.2. That the place is warming up anyway from natural causes, so adding Greenhouse gasses and making the situation no better, probably worse, possibly much worse, is a Bad Idea (tm).

Basically the whole thing is so politicised that we really need to get more and better data on how Man's actions are affecting the climate before we do anything. It's even possible we're ameliorating rather than worsening the situation through feedback effects.

About Me

Actually, I am a Rocket Scientist.
Also hormonally odd (my blood has 46xy chromosomes anyway) and for most of my life, I looked male, and lived as one, trying to be the best Man a Gal could be. Anyway, in May 2005 that started changing naturally for reasons still unclear, and I'm now Zoe, not Alan : happier and more relaxed not to have to pretend any more.
UPDATE - reason now identified as the 3BHSD form of CAH.

Reviews

This blog, written by a rocket scientist, is a fascinating collection of information, both personal and scientific, regarding intersex, transsexualism and related psychosocial and psychosexual issues....It is erudite and heartfelt. Just read the posts about the passport issue. You won't know whether to laugh, weep or crawl into a ball and rock gently in a corner - an amazing person.- David---The reason I so appreciate bright, perceptive people - as opposed to ideologues whose intelligence does little to illuminate - is that they manage to both instruct and learn with a certain grace. Among such rarities in the transblogosphere is Zoe, whose direct speech and clear humanity always make her worth reading, even if one doesn’t always agree with her every conclusion.- Val---The following is a request for permission to archive your A.E.Brain blog site which we have wanted to do for several years...The Library has traditionally collected items in print, but it is also committed to preserving electronic publications of lasting cultural value....Since (1996) we have been identifying online publications and archiving those that we consider have national significance....We would like to include A.E.Brain blog site in the PANDORA Archive...-Australian National Library